For those new to data analytics, random state is a seemingly humble argument in a machine learning algorithm, which when ignored sends your precious results into a tizzy. For ages, analysts have fed it a number to be able to reproduce the results of their data models.
I realized its need in a recent project and simply set it to a random number (pardon the pun) to just get the job done with for the moment. However, I later wondered if there is an optimal value for it.
So, to all my fellow data analysts who have dealt with Machine Learning algorithms, I ask you this: Have you ever wondered if the random state has a standard value?
As expected, my research concluded with: Nope. It can be anything. However, I did find something interesting. A popular value chosen all over the world for the random state is 42.
The reason was a little surprising and quirky. The number simply has been made popular by a comic science fiction called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" authored by Douglas Adams in 1978.
In this novel, a supercomputer called Deep Thought takes seven and a half million years to compute the answer to the ultimate question of Life, The Universe and Everything. The answer turns out to be 42. However, the exact question for which it has found the answer is either lost to time or wasn't known in the first place.
What's more? The supercomputer in the story says it is willing to help create a more powerful computer by incorporating living beings into it. Did the author foresee the fact that in future, the human beings and the machines will learn to coexist and create a much better place to live? Well, I certainly think so.
You might be wondering what's the point of all this research when it adds no scientific value to your data model. Well, then I can't help you. You can never learn and grow unless you go about asking why we are doing what we are doing. The very essence of data analysis is research, which if I were to put in simple terms: trial and error. Now that I know that 42 is a child born out of pop culture, I somehow feel all the more inclined to use it in my model. In case the client asks, I now at least won't give the boring answer "Because everyone uses it".
Interestingly, there are many geeks like me who have been obsessed with the number 42. Here are some deep symbolic significance to the occurrence of 42:
- Theodore Roosevelt, the youngest President of US, was 42 when he was elected.
- The Gutenberg Bible, the most valuable book in the world, has 42 lines per page.
- Cricket has 42 laws.
- There are 42 principles to the ancient Egyptian Law, Ma'at; the physical and moral law of order and truth.
Do you think these are just coincidences? I sure hope not!
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